October 2006 - Page 2 of 4 - TouringPlans.com Blog

Archive for October, 2006

Disney recently announced that is was rethinking its entire outlook toward food and the health of the nation. In general, the idea is to offer more healthy options with less fat and fewer junk food options directly marketed to kids – thus taking Mickey off foods you buy at the store that are completely bad for you and/or your kid.

At the theme parks – this relates to some more drastic changes that parents will want to take note of. The biggest change would be that childrens meals no longer inherently come with a soda, but rather a juice, milk, or something else. One can request a soda at no additional charge, but it’s not the default option anymore.

Also gone are the default french fries, they’ve been replaced with carrot sticks and apple sauce, and other such offerings. Again, if you still want them – you’ve got to request them.

For adults, fat contents in burgers are going down, the whole-wheat content of the bun is going up, and the general makeup of the food is changing slightly at several locations. Hopefully, there wont be much change in the taste of foods. The ABC Commissary at MGM Studios has been testing cooking with new oils (healthier fat) and no one seems to think the taste has changed. Hopefully, this will bode well for all of the other restaurants who are expeted to follow suit.

HalloWishes has replaced Wishes as the nightly fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom for the remainder of October. It is a special show specificly themed to halloween, normally only offered during Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

The new Animal Kingdom Lodge DVC has been confirmed by the Disney company and begin construction work soon. It will constructed in two phases with the first involving the rennovation of some the existing rooms in the resort, followed by the second with a new wing of the resort. More details will follow as we learn more about the project.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends, the new Nemo ride at Epcot, has begun soft-opening operation with normal day guests as of Monday, October 16th. This means that whenever possible, the attraction will admit regular guests and be operating as usual. However, the attraction is still new and will subject to downtimes/breakdowns as they work the final problems out.

There has been a stunning change of events – the Wonders of Life pavilion is scheduled to be open on internal calendars (meaning CMs are meant to be staffed at the pavilion) 11/26/06-01/01/07.

Epcot has reportedly seen a steady increase in popularity and crowds since Soarin’ opened and the new Nemo ride is sure to bring in more of the younger family group, so perhaps Epcot really needs this pavilion for the busy holiday season. On the other hand, perhaps there is a pavilion in Future World scheduled to close for refurbishment that has not yet been announced.

Updated crowd calendar now available. Includes dates through at least mid-September 2007. Also includes slightly modified crowd estimates, as we’ve modified our model. The new model has a slightly better average error (just under 8 minutes). It also shows some dates as “3” on the calendar.